June Monthly Goals Linky

Today I am linking up with “I {Heart} Recess,” and I am putting my June goals out there in blog world.  I figure that if people actually read them it might help hold me accountable!

Personal:  I signed up for a summer Bible study with some friends and let me tell you, it is much needed.  We are going to be reading Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions.  I need to be more consistent with my Bible reading and quiet time this summer and this study will help hold me to that.

Family:  My goal this month is to get everything on my agenda done before the girls are finished dance for the day (they dance A LOT) and my hubby gets home from his basketball camps.  That way I can be fully present with my family….something that you all know rarely happens during the school year!

Health:  This is the summer of getting back.  Getting back in the gym.  Getting back in my jeans, and getting back in my work pants.  I can’t afford to buy a new wardrobe and at the end of the year I was wearing elastic waist skirts every day.  It is so hard to maintain a consistent fitness schedule during the school year, but no more excuses!

School:  Soooo many changes are coming next year.  New curriculum and the new Gifted Cluster Model.  I have a lot of work to do!  My goal is to sit down for a few hours each day when my girls are at dance and hammer things out.  I have also learned to make notes in my phone when inspiration hits at a red light, at the gym, or at the grocery store.  I can never seem to remember my brilliant ideas an hour later when I get home! Oh the joys of getting older!

Blog/TpT:  I really neglect my little blog at the end of the school year.  My goal this month is to be more consistent and to develop meaningful relationships with other new bloggers.  I was so inspired to start blogging because of the relationships that some of the veterans have.  I want to find a little group of fellow bloggers to connect with and help support and encourage.

Read:  Reading is never a problem for me.  I {heart} reading!  I am going to get through all my read for enjoyment books this month so that next month I can make a reading goal about feeding my mind.  I need to add more nonfiction to my life!

Okay, so they are out there in cyber world now.  That means I have to do it right????  Blog entry….check.  Next up, working out!  Bring it on June! 

 

Wait….What???..Summer’s Here?….and June Currently

The end of the school year seriously snuck up on me, and before I could blink….it was over.  I seriously don’t know how it happened.  Maybe it was because I was not only busy with all of my third grade end of the year stuff, but I also had my “end of an era,” stuff to deal with.  My first born promoted to high school.  And so, it is the end of an era.  No more coming to school with mommy, stopping by my room to get things signed or just to say hi, and seeing each other in the halls.  Now, she will be going to Daddy’s school and for the next 4 years he will be the one to see her around campus, get to know her friends, and have to dish out cash because she forget that something had to be turned in ! 
 

 

A few days before promotion, they held an awards banquet and dinner dance for the 8th graders.  I couldn’t believe how many times this girl’s name was called.  My husband and I kept looking at each other and thinking, "Whose kid is this?”  I was not the most stellar student in junior high and I certainly didn’t have the confidence that this kiddo possesses.  Not only did she finish the 8th grade….she rocked it!  Proud parent moment for sure!
 

Promotion Night
 

So, that was it.  The school year came to end with a bang!  Then summer officially started, on the calendar anyway.  I don’t think I am going to count this past week as my first week of vacation.  We were running around like crazy and I haven’t had time to catch my breath!  It was filled with the usual appointments that we needed to catch up on, but then I had to throw in some training for next year, and there was some fun stuff too!

 

We saw Taylor Swift in concert on Tuesday.  Man, that girl can put on a show! 

 

 

Thursday I spent the day at a training for our new Gifted Cluster model.  I will be working a lot with the third grade gifted kiddos next year.  I added these two to my summer reading list.  If you’ve read them I would love to hear what you think!

 

The rest of the week was dance filled!  My Caity and her duo partner rocked it and came in 3rd overall for their age division! 

 

In other news, my Bachelorette watching bestie is out of town so we had to watch and then send each other our picks.  Here is my list:

Yes, I watch the show…it is my guilty pleasure….don’t judge !

 

And now for my June Currently and then I promise it will be back to the usual school blogging.  It is going to be a busy summer for me.  I have to prepare for lots of changes coming my way next year!

Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week everyone!  Teachers pay Teachers is having a HUGE sale from May 7th-8th.

 

Everything in my store will be 20% off and TpT is offering a promotional code to take an extra % off!  Stock up for the rest of the year and maybe even grab some things for next year!

Five for Friday

1

We finished up our Poetry Packets just in time to start our “file folder reports,” next week.  I will have lots of pictures of that project next weekend!

My favorite are their limericks!  So fun to read! I had a few students write limericks about Duck Dynasty.  I was dying!

2

I joined #teachertalktuesday on Instagram for the first time on Tuesday!  Follow me!

3

One of my favorite parts of our day is our Morning Meeting!  Love to hear their news and learn new things through our question time.  It also is a great chance for my kiddos to practice being active listeners and taking turns talking!  Great conversation skills are being formed!

4

We started our human body unit in science.  This is one of my favorite end of the year projects.  Our life sized paper bodies are lining the hallway and as we learn about each body system we glue it in place!  So much fun!

5

I came across this on Pinterest this week.  Such a great reminder about being light in this world.  Trying to do my part in my little part of the world to instill kindness!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Currently May

I am linking up with Oh Boy 4th Grade for the May Currently and I am predicting that I will already by in the 300s.  I am always so late on this!  The week is winding down along with the school year.  Time really has flown by.  My baby is promoting from 8th grade and leaving Mommy’s little elementary nest to join Daddy in the big world of high school.  My principal called her in a few weeks ago and asked if she would deliver the speech at the promotion ceremony.  I am not going to lie.  I teared up when I got the news.  I can’t wait to hear her deliver her speech and I am just praying I can hold it together!

Anyways, here is my Currently for May….just a little late (as usual!)

Listening…..  It is project time in our house.  School projects are due and Student Council elections are coming up so it is poster making central.  Thank goodness for my silhouette machine!

Loving……my house!  It is soooo clean!  My amazing husband hired someone to come in and clean it for me.  We had a party at our house last week and I just couldn’t handle all of the party prep and the clean up on my own (oh yeah, and then there is that full time job that I have!).  So great coming home each day to a house that is nice and clean!

Thinking……that I have a lot of projects that I want to work on this summer.  Some for school and some for home.  I will keep you posted!

Wanting…..a cute maxi skirt.  I am loving this trend.  I am all about anything that will hide my legs!  I really need to get out and do some shopping. 

Needing…..to catch up on some sleep.  Who can get to bed early when Grey’s Anatomy is brand new tonight!

Summer Bucket List….I have been wanting to refinish my kitchen table for some time now.  I have watched several DIY videos, checked out stains at Home Depot and priced out the whole project.  It is time to just get it done.  My poor table has been through 9 years of school projects.  It has seen incredible amounts of glue, glitter, clay, and paint.  It definitely needs some TLC!

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Testing Is Over! And One of My FAVORITE Projects EVER!

This week was testing week all over our district!  Time for our kiddos to show off their stuff.  The hard part of third grade is that this is their first AIMS experience, so they have no idea what to expect.  We spend lots of time prepping and pep talking, but the nerves are still there.  Fear of the unknown.  One of my sweethearts came in Wednesday morning, our first day of testing, wearing this…..

She told me that on Friday she planned on taking a Sharpie and crossing out “going to,” and change it to “did!”  Love it.

Each afternoon after testing we worked on one of my all-time favorite projects.  Every year, this project is a huge hit with my classes!  As part of our science curriculum, we have a unit on Ecosystems.  We learn about the different ecosystems and how plants and animals are adapted to live there.  As a culminating project, students must create a creature and then write an encyclopedia entry about their creature.  They have to tell us about their creature’s habitat and how it is adapted to live there.  I show them how to make a mirror image of their name in cursive (also great for reinforcing geometry concepts that we learn) and then they turn their name into their creature.  They had so much fun getting creative and did such an amazing job.

If you look closely, you can find “Jarom’s” name in his rainforest creature.

Donavin’s creature lives in the swamp. 

Emily’s “Sunshine Bug.”

I am not sure who loves this project more, me or the kiddos!  Now they all want to make a name creature for everyone in their family!

Friday was the last day of testing and time for my annual surprise party for my students.  All year, I tell them that if they come to school everyday ready to work hard and do their jobs that AIMS will be a “piece of cake.”  So,  on the last day of testing I bring in a huge cake from Costco that says, “AIMS was a Piece of Cake!” and we eat cake! 

This is now a 10 year tradition and my former students have done a pretty good job of keeping the surprise!

Now that testing is over….finally, I can’t wait to get back to the fun part of teaching!  I love this time of year!  When we return on Monday and get back into our normal routine we are going to start reading Double Fudge.  This is one of my favorite units.  The kids love this story and we get to do several fun things with it.  My favorite part is the end of the unit celebration.  Instead of a boring ‘ol test, we have a Double Fudge Awards show!  Students have to decide on nominees for the different categories and then choose a winner.  They have to support their decision using evidence from the text (Common Core!).  Then we have our awards ceremony and they get to present their awards!  So much better than a test!

My Double Fudge unit is now uploaded to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and is on sale for 15% off this weekend only!  Just click on the picture to check it out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. If you are finished state testing, congratulations on surviving and if you are gearing up for it, best of luck to you!

I Know I’m Getting Older, But Dinosaurs…Really????

I learned many lesson early on in my teaching career.  One of which was to never let third graders try to guess your age.  They have no concept of time.  I was 24 when I first learned this, and pregnant with my first daughter.  A student asked, “How old are you Mrs. Wood?”  I naively replied, “How old do you think I am?”  Never again….she guessed that I was 43, really???  Since that day, I have never made them guess.  They ask the question and I happily give them the answer because, let’s face it, the truth is much kinder than their guess will be!

That brings me to one of the funniest teaching moments I have had this year…maybe even ever.  We are gearing up for our state testing and have been reviewing and hitting some much needed concepts hard.  One thing that they will need to know is the difference between all of the reference materials.  For third grade, they need to know about a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas and an encyclopedia.  The encyclopedia is the hardest for them because in all reality, they will never, ever, ever, use one.  Who needs to with Google at your fingertips.  So, I made a phone call to our school library and had several volumes of the World Book sent down to my room.
 

We went through the more '”standard,” reference materials using a power point that I have (I will try and make it look better and post it later) and made an anchor chart with useful information. 
 

Then, I introduced my old friend the encyclopedia.  I. AM. TELLING.YOU….you would have thought that I dug up a dinosaur the way they reacted.  I had to stop my lesson and give them 30 minutes to travel table to table so they could get a look at each of the volumes we had borrowed. 
 

At one point, one of my guys got tired of crowding around the encyclopedias and opened his chapter book and started reading.  I overheard one of his tablemates talking to him and it was quite honestly one of the funniest remarks I have heard in a while.  He said, “You really need to put that book down and look at these encyclopedias, some day they are going to be extinct just like the dinosaurs, you need to look at them while you still can!” 

So, there you have it.  Yes, I am getting older.  The books that I once loved and used to do all of the research for my fifth grade state report are becoming extinct like the dinosaurs.  They are right up there with the Walkman and car windows that crank.  Children, if you don’t know what those are you can Google them!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Mrs. Wood